January 31, 2009

London 2012 may be the white elephant in the room to most Hackney residents, but Council spin doctor Emma Brinton is determined to convince us that the good times are coming. Evidence for this is that media facilities such as the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre are being built in Hackney Wick, which Ms Brinton assures us can become permanent structures.

Council Chief Executive Tim Shields comments:

"Leading media companies have expressed strong interest in moving to the centres in legacy, and the Council will continue to use every opportunity to work with Olympic decision makers to secure this outcome for Hackney".

Am I the only person who imagines that when Tim Shields said the above, he had his fingers very firmly crossed? Tim, these guys will say anything to you in the run up to the Games, but as soon as that closing ceremony finishes, you - and Hackney - don't exist as far as they are concerned.

January 29, 2009

Yesterday evening saw a packed public meeting at Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham, to mark 100 years since 1909's 'Tottenham Outrage'.

If your knowledge of politically motivated English crime is weak, the Tottenham Outrage occurred when two east European radicals botched a wages heist on Tottenham High Road, and ended up being pursued across much of north London, merrily opening fire on their pursuers. A police officer, a 10 year old boy and both gunmen died.

Barbara Hedgecock, museum curator, spoke about a week of events, that included a ceremony on Friday 23rd January at Abney Park cemetery in Stoke Newington, where PC Tyler and Ralph Joscelyne are buried, and the unveiling of a plaque at Tottenham Police station.

One of the difficulties with assessing historical events like this is how often terms, sometimes competing, merge. In discussing the gunmen, Ms Hedgecock made use of the following: Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, Lettish, east European, Social Revolutionaries, SR's and of course Anarchists. Contemporary press reports certainly concentrated on "Russian Anarchists" and Tottenham was home to not one but two 'Little Russia's'. I believe that Phil Ruff, in his forthcoming study of the Siege of Sydney Street, has cut through many of these terms, at least with regards to the Hounsditch murders and the Siege of Sydney Street.

London in 1909 was certainly a very different world to now. One feature that emerged was the comparatively high gun ownership - police officers were being handed guns by members of the public with which to pursue the robbers, and it is worth noting that this was an era of no passports - if you made it to the UK, you were in all likelihood here to stay.

As with any great story, the Tottenham Outrage has a good mystery - just what happened to the money? A full bag of loot was taken, but never recovered, and Paul Hefeld and Jakob Lepidus hardly had time to stop, dig a hole and bury it.

So where is it? Two possibilities emerged - that Lepidus hid it in the house where he was finally trapped, where some of it was seemingly discovered, years latter, after the house collapsed. A further suggestion was that the loot was dropped on Tottenham Marshes, where some small boys skimmed the coins across the River Lea (!) before a bag, containing one remaining gold sovereign, was handed in to Tottenham Police station. No doubt other theories could be considered - that pursuing police officers recovered and kept it (not unknown, but hardly without risk) that one of those chasing Hefeld and Lepidus was in fact chasing the money rather than the baddies, and on seeing an opportunity to grab the money did so, or finally, and least likely, that the money was somehow passed to an accomplice en route.

The beauty of local history, when it is done well, is that it involves people. It is easy to think of Tottenham as a rather rootless, cosmopolitan place, yet in the room last night were descendants of Ralph Joscelyne, and others whose families had been shot at or chased the gunmen. The room was packed to the rafters.

Could such an 'outrage' occur today? Well, Anarchists can usually find easier ways of getting money. And 'have a go heroes' are also a little less common.......

January 28, 2009

I must admit I have never really understood the esteem in which the BBC is held by some people.

Over the years the BBC has shown itself just as likely to be manipulated by the police, security services or dishonest politicians as any other broadcaster, yet its position as a liberal darling is rarely questioned. I can only assume that much of this is a hang up from the 1980s, when Mrs Thatcher's Conservative Party was unable to hide its contempt for what they saw as the hand-wringing liberals of the Beeb. Some people seem slow to recognise we are not living in the 1980s anymore.

The BBC (and Sky's) decision not to show a humanitarian broadcast from the Disasters Emergency Committee is perhaps not a surprise, but it is certainly wrong. How can it be biased to show an appeal for civilians, injured in warfare? In fact it is surely biased to refuse to show such an appeal, placing their suffering as in some way below that of other victims of conflict.

Back in November 2005, the BBC's Director General, Mark Thompson, held talks in Jerusalem with the then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. These were described as "peace talks" due to Israeli belief that the corporation was biased against it. The Israelis pressed for a change in the BBC's approach in the Middle East.

Ariel Sharon certainly seems to be getting his way now.

To register a complaint with the BBC, you can call them on 03700 100 222 and select Option 1.

January 27, 2009

January 2009 is the first month since 1992, that I have not been a member of the Class War Federation.

16 years is a long time - longer than many people's marriages. Try to remember what you were doing 16 years ago, and you will get an indication of the scale of what I'm talking about. So why the change?

Well, firstly I'm tired. Doing the same things for a long time has that effect. It is time I did something else. Secondly in October 2008 I started a PhD. That means I'm an academic, and I'm not really sure being an academic is compatible with being a member of Class War. Thirdly, there is a danger in anyone becoming a fixture, or a permanent part of something. I don't want people to rely on me, especially when it comes to things they could just as easily do themselves. The Anarchist movement in the UK has a tendency to attract its share of dis-organised people, and needs to be careful to move things round every now and then.

So - what will I miss? From being in Class War, I have friends all over the world, many of whom I have never met (and perhaps never will). I know the pleasure that sending letters and e mail to like minded people across the world has given me. Watching some of those people come in to the Anarchist movement, and make a contribution, has brought real satisfaction.

When Greg Hall completes Bash the Rich, I hope he can fiddle with the timescale to include the story of the letter London Class War received from a supporter whose boyfriend had recently passed away after a struggle with cancer. They were the couple who had featured in the famous picture of two punks snogging in Trafalgar Square during the Poll Tax riot, with the South African embassy on fire in the background. She told us how much her boyfriend loved Class War, and asked us for the original picture. You could spend a lifetime in the Labour Party and not experience the emotion that letter gave us.

I don't think it is any coincidence that attempts to set up Class War groups in other countries have usually stalled. Often with CW, there is a peculiarly English incompetence. I can recall meeting a supporter at the Anarchist Bookfair, who I had written to many times in prison. He'd had a terrible time from bullying screws, and one particular thug who was threatening to ensure that he was detained under the Mental Health Act on the final day of his sentence. What was our man to do?

I scurried round looking for some advice, but in the end could only offer comradely platitudes. This left our imprisoned friend in a corner - and he had to take a dangerous step that no one would take without a great deal of careful consideration. He wrote to his MP, who was none other than the Right Honourable Gentleman for Old Bexley and Sidcup, Sir Edward Heath. Old Ted Heath must have convinced himself there was some sort of Thatcherite plot going on, for he delivered a rocket up the backside of the Prison Service that scattered officers in all directions. Not only did the threats from the screws end, but they were virtually saluting our comrade every time he left his cell. If we did not always make a difference, the fact that we tried to seems almost as important.

Although I am very happy with the enemies I have, there have also been real disappointments. I learned in the 1990s that many class stuggle Anarchists and Communists are really left liberals at heart. James Walsh brilliantly coined the term 'hard liberals' for people who seemed to have joined the Anarchist movement solely because they did not like racism, sexism or fascism (who does?) and then believed that the best way to fight those evils is to police the Anarchist movement for phenomena they find offensive. Usually this is a country mile from what any sane working class person would consider sexist or racist.

That people with the intelligence and standing of Chumbawamba could give money to Searchlight, or that a woman could design a poster for Class War's Anarchist speed dating event and be condemned as sexist by a succession of (mostly male) Anarchist keyboard warriors, tells us much about the problems that fester in the Anarchist movement. At least some people take their liberalism to its logical conclusion. Back in 2001 I met a former National Secretary of Class War, who was just about to travel to Pakistan on a charitable mission with his local mosque. No Gods, No Masters anyone?

So - the future? This year sees a projected Anarchist conference in London, plus the G20 caravan riding into town, at the start of the biggest recession for 70 years. I am far from convinced that conferences or summit counter-demonstrations are neccesarily the way forward, but I would be very happy to be proved wrong. The UK Anarchist movement has much to learn from comrades in countries like Greece, Denmark and Germany - at the very least this year offers an opportunity to do just that. We talk about Internationalism as a concept, but we really do very little work at the level where it matters - of sitting down face to face and exchanging ideas and experiences.

On a purely personal level, I shall remain as a supporter of Class War. You will find me studying Islamist organisations and structures with as much energy as I can, and I will probably become a prophet of doom constantly stressing the need for us all to raise the banner for secular values before it is too late. If you can't see the contradiction between taking the piss out of Sarah Palin for being a reactionary, then going on a march with the British Muslim Initiative, we probably need to sit down and debate with each other.

January 25, 2009

Anyone in the west end yesterday can't have failed to notice Barclays opening their new flagship store in Piccadilly Circus. There was much fanfare - dozens of staff marching up and down in silly outfits, blue balloons for the crowd and leaflets proclaiming the new store would be open seven days a week. That's two days extra they have to fuck up with our money!

The events of the last 12 months should have changed for ever how the banking industry is viewed. Much power, little (or no) responsibility. Had Barclays dressed their promotional staff as clowns it may had been more appropriate. We should never let them return to the status quo.

January 24, 2009

The last three episodes of Ian Bone's interviews on Resonance FM, in the "Anarchism in Britain" series, are now available to download.

The interviews include Andy from Freedom Press on the redevelopment at the Whitechapel book store, Sandy from Liberty & Solidarity on a new anarchist grouping, and my good self. My 11th January conversation with Ian managed to ramble through Class War, the royal family, the rise of the far-right, the dangers of Islamism - oh and meeting dubious ladies in Kings Cross pubs.

January 22, 2009

"All the experience of history demonstrates to us that an alliance concluded between two different partners always turns to the advantage of the more reactionary of the two parties; this alliance necessarily enfeebles the more progressive party, by diminishing and distorting its programme, by destroying its moral strength, its confidence in itself, whilst a reactionary party, when it is guilty of falsehood is always and more than ever true to itself."

January 20, 2009

The Aussie and New Zealand anti-racist website Fight Dem Back has a little piece on its website about the Queensland Retailers Association that is calling for a ban on hoodies, helmets and hijabs from its stores. The reason for this is of course the buzz word of the 21st century - security.

Perhaps 10 years ago I would have simply supported Fight Dem Back, and left it that. Now, I can't help but find myself thinking how this will end. My guess is the Retail Association will observe a ban on hoodies and helmets, but when it comes down to the third H, they will climb down on banning hijabs.

And if they do that, we will surely find that the fight will go out of Fight Dem Back, and they will move on to another issue, leaving the hoodies and helmet wearers to the mercy of Queensland's no doubt zealous security guards.

There are plenty of people willing to speak for the hijab wearers. So - who speaks for the hoodies and helmet wearers?

January 19, 2009

Long overdue, the UK's longest running Anarchist bookshop has now moved its stock into the freshly decorated ground floor. Open Monday to Saturday from noon - 6pm, Freedom is also opening on Sunday afternoon's.

Over the years the Anarchist movement has somewhat neglected Freedom, a situation that is now changing. Sometimes the Anarchist movement is not very easy to join or rather intimidating to approach (you should have tried joining Class War in the early 1990s!) and an accessible public venue is vital.

January 18, 2009

"No one takes him seriously. The Israelis think he is very convenient, because he will never blame them for anything, and the Palestinians have nothing but contempt for him."

Author Avi Shlaim, discussing the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia's envoy to the Middle East, one Tony Blair. (Telegraph 17/1/09).

Curiously the newspaper version of the article, by Gordon Rayner, is decisively headed "Will the bottom drop out of Brand Blair?", yet the on-line article (otherwise identical) takes the more subdued heading "Will the shine come off the Tony Blair brand?".

January 16, 2009

It is rare that I am lost for words, but seeing these 'efforts' below, I was momentarily struck dumb. These, I should stress, are nothing to do with the Class War Federation, but are the work of the increasingly eccentric Trevor Bark.

Any anarchist with an Internet connection will have encountered Trevor, (usually briefly) who operates under a succession of pseudonyms. The reason such encounters are usually brief is that few site administrators enjoy seeing someone advertising their declining mental health, whilst at the same time berating all and sundry. When banned from a website, or expelled from an organisation, Trevor either adopts a succession of new names to praise his earlier work, or attempts to take on the name of that organisation. If you have seen anything this year in the name of North East Cl@ss War, that will be him.

In an act of crass stupidity, it would appear someone has given Trevor some money, which naturally has been used on what he sees as happening propaganda. I reproduce some examples of this below:

Rumour has it that the Durham NUM gave Trevor, or The Bl@ck Hand as he sometimes calls himself, the money for this. If so, they may wish to consider whether they have taken a decision that boosts their reputation. Personally I think the money would have been better spent on trades union campaigns, or even a trip to the nearest branch of William Hill.

January 15, 2009

Fans of The Prisoner will have noticed that the name of this blog is a tribute to the greatest TV series of all time. To read of the death of the man who made The Prisoner (in more ways than one) is a sad moment.

Others can pay tribute to McGoohan far better than me - do follow the link below to see one detailed obituary, plus a web page to leave messages of appreciation.

January 14, 2009

I would like to hear people's views about some of the absolute garbage that has been published about Anarchism, or Anarchists. As we know Anarchists don't sue - or if we did we would not win - so writers and journalists feel they can say pretty much whatever they want about us and get away with it.

Some early contenders for you to consider. I have never met a class struggle Anarchist with a good word for either Peter Marshall or his "Demanding The Impossible: A History of Anarchism", which was for some reason reprinted last year. With his clipped Oxbridge brogue and distance from the Anarchist movement as it is currently constituted, Marshall was not well placed to write such a tome. And that's being generous.

Whilst I take it as a given that the worst film about Anarchism ever is the 2002 car crash Anarchist Cookbook (a film so reactionary, and so stereotyped it actually has a cult following amongst Anarchists who watch it to see if they can avoid wetting themselves laughing in the first 40 minutes) the book which inspired the film is apparently useless to anyone actually trying to make explosives, drugs or anything which you might actually have bought the book for. And it is currently £26 on Amazon!

I recently came across an absolute stinker in the form of "Anarchi Feng Shui - How To Create Profane and Chaotic Spaces" by Penny Chiu. An attempt to take the piss out of the succession of Feng Shui books cluttering up the coffee tables of the idle rich, it confuses Anarchism with obsessive wealth creation, greed and just about every sin of the political ideologies Anarchism was created to oppose. True bargain bucket material, which is where I bought my copy..........

January 12, 2009

Ten years ago it was virtually impossible to find a cash machine at a motorway service station that charged you to use it.

Now it is virtually impossible to find a motorway service station where you will not be charged to withdraw cash! We really don't hate these people enough, we really don't abuse these people enough, and we really don't act against them enough.

January 11, 2009

Ian Bone has now worked his way to the back of his address book, as he is interviewing me at 6pm today on Resonance FM.

You can listen in here. We are going to talk about the UK Anarchist movement, my involvement in it, some of my current research and what the future might hold. I might even enjoy myself if United have beaten Chelsea earlier in the day...........

January 08, 2009

Rules, regulations and obsessive security are really interfering with day to day life in Westminster.

Earlier this week I was in the process of locking my bike to the fence outside Waterstones on The Strand. A police car promptly stopped, and a WPC (of the hairy hands type) immediately instructed me to desist. I was apparently risking having my bike taken away, as I was in a "Government Security Area". And there was me thinking I was just going into Waterstones!

There was no sign to this effect - either on the fence or by the bus stop just behind me - so quite how any cyclist is supposed to know about this prohibition is beyond me. Usually if a police officer tells you not to do something it is a good encouragement to carry on doing exactly what you are doing, but as soon as old hairy hands started talking about how "this is a bit of friendly advice" I decided it was easier to simply move somewhere else.

January 07, 2009

"Freedom is never attained; it must always be striven for...... Each generation must face its own problems which cannot be forestalled or provided for in advance. The worst tyranny is that of ideas which have been handed down to us, allowing no development in ourselves".

January 06, 2009

Just before Christmas the latest issue of the UK's oldest parapolitical magazine came out.

Nothing much changes with Lobster (a strength, not a weakness in my view) and this issue is no different. Many Lobster constants reappear each issue - that an economy based not on manufacturing but solely on moving electronic money about is untenable, that new Labour is to be seen in the context of Anglo-American political history, and that much of the media regurgitates anything spooks tell it to - but I guess some people need to be reminded of these points until they sink in.

Of the articles in issue 56 I felt I had read Scott Newton's piece on Harold Wilson and the Cecil King 'coup' before, but that may just be my mind wandering. Simon Matthews analysis of Ken Livingstone (or more particular Andrew Hosken's book about him) was a curate's egg. Matthews does place Livingstone - correctly - as a uniquely London figure, but fails to situate that correctly in the capitals left leaning middle class. I also think he overstates Livingstone's Trotskyist associations, although Matthews is spot on in his assessment that Ken was nowhere near as radical as some people like to make him out to be, or for that matter as radical as Ken perhaps thinks he is.

That the Metropolitan Police thoroughly captured Livingstone at some stage is an issue also worthy of serious study, especially as he appears to have remainded captured even after leaving office. ("Livingstone, His Politics and the Secret State" in Notes From the Borderland issue 3 gives an analysis of not so Red Ken up to autumn 2000, and is an article many would like to see updating to cover the intervening 8 years).

Elsewhere Colin Challen MP examines the Bush family and its business activities (I am alone in never having heard of Challen anywhere other than in the pages of Lobster? Does he say anything in the Commons?) whilst Phillip Conford's analysis of the politics of the organic movement was a lot more interesting than it sounds.

Finally mention must be made of Danny Weston's article "Britain Spinning in the Sibel Edmonds Web". Weston certainly seems to develop a case that the UK (and other intelligence agencies) not only knew all about AQ Khan and his determined nuclear proliferation on behalf of Pakistan, but actively assisted it. If so, that begs the bigger question. Why?

Lobster is available in London from bookshops such as Housmans in Kings Cross, Borders and direct from the publisher here. Buy it.

January 05, 2009

There are few people more naive and indignant than the British liberal encountering the full force of authority.

From the Observers report into the Middle East peace march in London on Saturday where police officers attacked demonstrators in the underground tunnel near Hyde Park:

Stephen Hodgkins, 38, a community worker from Battersea said that people were petrified inside the tunnel. "We tried sitting down but that didn't seem to work. It was complete panic. I think that the police deliberately took us into that tunnel to try to change the direction of the march and teach us a lesson."

Stephen - sitting down in front of people wearing big boots and carrying truncheons, to appeal to their better nature, is probably not a good idea. Allowing such people to lure you into a confined space is even less sensible.

Paul Gascoigne scored two of the greatest goals Wembley Stadium has ever seen. With the exception of Zinedene Zidane, no European midfielder has performed in the way Gascoigne did in the 1990 World Cup Semi Final.

That makes his physical and mental decline all the sadder. This evenings "Surviving Gazza" documentary on Channel 4, trailed in various newspapers over the past few days, is arguably approaching the issue from only one angle.

I want to hear about Mel Stein, Gascoigne's agent who "represented" him in the good times, writing a biography of him and is now the Chairman of the Association of Football Agents. I want to hear about all the celebrities and business figures who worked with the guy in the 1990s, making huge sums of money in the process, and see them questioned about how they acted, and what could have been done differently.

Does anyone in the media want to step forward and make that programme?

January 02, 2009

Hello to the Hereford Solidarity League, who publish the excellent Hereford Heckler.

You can view their website and local newsheet here, and even visit Heckler TV.

There seems to be a bit of a buzz around the Anarchist movement at the moment about the concept of local groups, concentrating on specific issues rather than getting into a lather about anti-globalisation events in Europe, or hoping that the local Mullahs will join you in a demonstration about Palestine.

Such work has scored some real goals in the past - Alarm in Swansea is perhaps the classic example, whilst Anarchists were the de facto opposition in Sheffield in the 1980s, when the vote for David Blunkett's Labour council was weighed rather than counted. 10 Anarchists campaigning London wide will have little effect - 10 people working together in Leamington Spa would be an entirely different proposition.

There are however reservations to consider about this method of organising.

There is a clear tendency amongst UK Anarchists to simply declare local work as brilliant, and then fail to look at it critically (attitudes towards the over-rated Haringey Solidarity Group is one example of this) whilst local groups are perhaps more prone to dominance by a small number of individuals, then national one's.

The strength of local groups - that they are not tied to a national federation or body - is conversely also a weakness. Some will lack resources, or a range of forums by which to bounce ideas around.

Perhaps saddest of all are the examples of strong groups that have collapsed simply because one or two activists have moved to another city, had kids or hung up their boots - such changes probably account for more organisations demise than 'political differences' ever will...........

January 01, 2009

"Harry Roberts Is Our Friend, He Kills Coppers" being sung towards a group of idiotic police who were blocking access to London Bridge following the superb New Years fireworks display. When you have a large crowd wishing to disperse, what genius to block off the largest bridge that would take them away from the crowded area.

Still, it was good to hear Londoners in fine voice. It might not signify anything, but it could be an omen that 2009 is going to be a lively year........